During Nintendo's Indie World showcase, we got our first look at the timed Switch exclusive, Murder By Numbers. The game is set in the '90s and takes place in Hollywood. The story is about an actress who finds herself starring in her very own murder mystery.

Your job – with the help of your robot friend named Scout – is to dig up clues by searching around the place, interrogating suspects and solving picross puzzles. The game is supported by music from Masakazu Sugimori, the composer behind Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Viewtiful Joe, and has weird and wonderful characters designed by Hato Moa of Hatoful Boyfriend.

Murder By Numbers arrives "early" next year. What are your first impressions of this game? Tell us down below.

When he’s not paying off a loan to Tom Nook, Liam likes to report on the latest Nintendo news and admire his library of video games. His favourite Nintendo character used to be a guitar-playing dog, but nowadays he prefers to hang out with Judd the cat.

This was honestly my favorite part of the indie showcase. It's like those silly hidden object games which try and shove the DEEP PLOT angle into the proceedings ("Oh no! My uncle Ravenloft died on Friday the 13th and left me this haunted mansion! Now go find a pinwheel, a turtle, a snow globe, three birds, and the letter K."), but the picross puzzles in this game are themed after the mystery you're solving, making them much easier to swallow in context.

It also reminds me of James Noir's Hollywood Crimes on 3DS, which was a murder mystery with bouts of Professor Layton in the proceedings. I guess combining murder mysteries with game genres is just a good idea in general, hehe.